Neural Systematic BinderDownload PDF

Published: 01 Feb 2023, Last Modified: 20 Feb 2023ICLR 2023 posterReaders: Everyone
Keywords: object-centric learning, unsupervised representation learning, disentanglement, concept learning
TL;DR: We propose a novel object-centric representation called block-slots, which unlike the conventional slots, provides within-slot disentanglement via vector-formed factor representations.
Abstract: The key to high-level cognition is believed to be the ability to systematically manipulate and compose knowledge pieces. While token-like structured knowledge representations are naturally provided in text, it is elusive how to obtain them for unstructured modalities such as scene images. In this paper, we propose a neural mechanism called Neural Systematic Binder or SysBinder for constructing a novel structured representation called Block-Slot Representation. In Block-Slot Representation, object-centric representations known as slots are constructed by composing a set of independent factor representations called blocks, to facilitate systematic generalization. SysBinder obtains this structure in an unsupervised way by alternatingly applying two different binding principles: spatial binding for spatial modularity across the full scene and factor binding for factor modularity within an object. SysBinder is a simple, deterministic, and general-purpose layer that can be applied as a drop-in module in any arbitrary neural network and on any modality. In experiments, we find that SysBinder provides significantly better factor disentanglement within the slots than the conventional object-centric methods, including, for the first time, in visually complex scene images such as CLEVR-Tex. Furthermore, we demonstrate factor-level systematicity in controlled scene generation by decoding unseen factor combinations.
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Please Choose The Closest Area That Your Submission Falls Into: Unsupervised and Self-supervised learning
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